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This monument marks the square of the village of Risdon founded 1832. The land was owned by John Gorsuch, who settled here with his family in a clearing along the Portage River in 1831. He had a plat of the area made by David Risdon, Seneca County surveyor, after who the town was named. This plat was officially recorded September 13, 1832. The village of Risdon had the first church and post office, and has the oldest house in Fostoria.
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Seville’s most famous residents, Captain Martin Van Buren Bates (1845-1919) and Anna Swan Bates (1848-1889) settled here in 1873. Their notoriety stemmed from their dramatic stature: Martin, a former Confederate soldier from Kentucky, stood 7 feet 8 inches tall; Anna, a would-be teacher from Nova Scotia, stood 7 feet 11 inches tall. They met on the carnival circuit in New Jersey in 1871 and wedded in England the same year in a ceremony orchestrated by Queen Victoria. (Continued on other side)
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Theodore Dreiser wrote in 1900 his famous novel, Sister Carrie, in this house. It was built in 1835 and altered to Greek Revival Style in 1844. Dreiser acquired it in 1899. The house possesses most of the features typical of the American “classic temple” including four Doric columns rising the full length of the structure. In 1967 the house is owned by the William M. Hankins family.
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This house originally stood at Logan’s Gap, Union Township. By tradition, it was constructed in 1793 by Indian scouts William Dixon and Cornelius Washburn who became residents of Brown County. Dixon lived in this house until 1800.
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These structures stand as an exception to the usual wood frame or brick construction of farm buildings in this region in the late nineteenth century. The house and barn, built circa 1871 and 1883-1885 respectively, reflect Frederick Kindelberger’s (1835-1911) creativity and vision to instill a responsibility to the land. The Kindelberger family purchased the farm in 1846, after they had emigrated from Alsace-Lorraine. The walls of the barn were created using a distinct architectural design, whereas they taper from 25 inches thick at the base to 12 inches thick at the top. Stonemasons and family members labored using sandstone, which was quarried on the eighty-acre farm, to construct the buildings. Due to their stone construction, the house and barn were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
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This block of Main Street overlooks the Geauga County Courthouse, which was built in 1869. The courthouse and the Main Street buildings, together which compose a district that has been entered on the National Register of Historic Places, are excellent examples of the High Victorian Italianate architectural style. Going north from Court Street, the first two buildings were erected in 1873. The Opera House dates from 1875. The jail was constructed in 1868 just after the fire, followed by the new jail of 1874, and the sheriff’s house of 1909. Memorial Hall (now the Courthouse Annex) dates from 1875. Last on the block is the Victorian Gothic Church built in 1882.
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The Old City Building and Market, also known as the Municipal Building or Marketplace, was designed by local architect Charles A. Cregar. It was completed in 1890 at a cost of $250,000. Vendors, who sold meats, fish, provisions, vegetables, and other products, used the first floor of the building as a city market. The second and third floors accommodated city offices, the police department, the City Council Chamber, and City Hall, which doubled as an opera house. The Old City Building and Market, built in the Richardson Romanesque architectural style, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. In March 2001, it became the home of the Clark County Historical Society and renamed the Heritage Center of Clark County.
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William Holmes McGuffey, author of the Eclectic Series of Readers, was ordained a Presbyterian minister in a log meeting house on this site in 1829. The ordination was performed by Robert Bishop, President of Miami University, and other ministers from the Oxford Presbytery. McGuffey’s Christian character is an example and model for all teachers and students in America.
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